On, Beside, Atop the Standing Desk

The standing desk began to trend on Facebook a while back. Churchill used one to write and edit. Learning this, I perk up and look more deeply into the concept.

Companies are still making standing desks. I don’t care for the look, though. And, I already have a desk with drawers and a flat surface.

So, I look at raising my writing desk to standing desk level. What if I were to balance it on stacks of books, once I know what height it should be. So, I measure the distance between the top of my head and the screen, then subtract the difference between the top of my head and the floor sitting, and standing. Or something. And come up with a number of centimeters that put my desk in a weird half-space at the window and me working in full view of all my neighbours, which is distracting to creative thought, especially with the desk falling off the stacks of books all the time.

I check out portable Victorian pulpits. Small ones, you know. They do exist, ebay-ers, but our flat is also small, and there is really nowhere to put one except the bathroom, and then the hamper will have to sit on the bed.

But, man, I’m picturing Churchill, standing at his desk to work (when not working in his bath). There’s got to be a way.

So, I measure the kitchen counter, which is 4 cm too short, and find a big wide book that measures 4 cm from the countertop to support my laptop. I put a block of wood at my foot to act as a foot rail, like the ones in wild-west bars. True, I have to clear my laptop away to cook at all, and wipe down my counter to work, but the view of the Victorian pub, sometimes accessorized with Morris dancers, traffic accidents, and magpie battles, inspires me. And the extra movement and shifting of position, when combined with taking walks outside, helps enhance this happy-brain profession so that it’s a more movement-oriented career. As well, for those of us working on computer screens, it’s well to know that we’re meant to look up and focus into the distance every few minutes. I find I do that when I’m standing far more than when I’m sitting.